was up in bendigo for the week, some cold mornings - car was covered in ice. anyway went to start it in the morning and it wouldnt fire, kept cranking it till battery had had enough too then gave up. Tried it again that night and started with no dramas at all - battery had recovered i guess. I have noticed that other cold mornings it has really struggled to fire as well. Anyone got any ideas what it could be causing this? planning on taking car to the snow in a month or so and really want to figure it out before then (prick of a place to be stranded). Ony struggles to start when its cold outside and engine is cold.

Next time boil the jug and slowly pour it over the fuel rails until empty then crank it over.

Check inlet leaks...
Check coolant and inlet temp sensers....
Check fuel pump relay
Check leads and plugs...
Clean maf....
Check all fuel delivery items...

Try heating the ignition module on the side of the dizzy. I had a simular problem on a s**t SSS a few years ago and that is what the bloke from the RACQ did.

YEP the TFI module...
That grey plastic piece thats on dissy side of connector...
It either spark or fuel delivery ???
Ha on some after market ecu"s the motor can turn over but if battery is low it doesn't suppy enough amps fo ecu to opperate.....ESP on low comp engines..

thanks for that, yeah it normally goes no dramas, just the cold mornings wouldnt go easily. looking more for a permanent fix to the problem than temporary. Was thinking as it only happens when its a cold morning adn the engine is cold, possibly battery? had a bit of trouble a while ago with the engine flooding on start up but new spark plugs fixed that up if that could help narrow it down?

rather than start a new thread i will join this one with a similar prob i have. my car also does not like cold start at moment. when warmed up is fine. only cranks a couple of times, fires up and idles nice - maybe a touch high if anything. when cold it cranks for ages and when it eventually fires it either stalls again or is very rough and will stall if i don't press the accelerator a touch to lift the revs. if i sit there for 5 mins warming it up with the revs up around 1500 - 2000rpm then it will sort of idle o.k by itself well enough so that i no longer need to use the accelerator to stop it stalling. the difference with my car is that it runs microtech. a lot of people say microtech doesn't have cold start ability but this is not quite true. when i bought the car it was fine. started first time every time and idled smooth as cold, hot or whatever. have had it at mechanics trying to find the issue but nothing that he is doing seems to be making any difference. all sensors, air, coolant, idle up sol etc are all seeming to be working o.k.

a couple of guys mentioned the tfi on the dizzy. could this be causing this. what does this control. would it still be connected or not considering the microtech is controlling engine management.

all ideas appreciated.

well I got a new battery and after getting the battery tested at ford (no charge) their testing unit told me that i needed a new battery as the previous one was only putting out half the cranking power it was supposed to. I bought a new battery and havent had a problem as yet, still doesnt like starting terribly much when its cold but i figure this could be in part due to the computer resetting as it also idles a bit high now too - 1000rpm, will wait and see what happens tho, might be able to scrape some money together to get a diagnostic check some time soon (fingers crossed) just so i can rule out any problems wiht that.

well its still not starting great when cold, had one morning when it wouldnt go at all. Have had it diagnostic checked at ford and no codes were reported. Would this mean that its not a problem with any sensors? I have just bought a new fuel filter, not fitted yet. I dont however think that will fix the problem, as it would be a problem at all times if this was the problem? But it probably does need a new one anyway and who knows. When that probably doesnt work, next up is new leads - got new plugs for it aobut 2 months ago. slowly trying to make my way through the above lists of possible problems.